A Minneapolis couple have created a website, http://www.birthornot.com, on which they are asking the public to vote on whether they should continue with or terminate the woman’s pregnancy. They are posting regular pictures of their baby, a perfectly healthy boy they have named Wiggles (I warned you this was awful), as it develops in the womb. They plan to make the decision whether to abort or not by December 7, two days before Wiggles turns twenty weeks old, the legal deadline for abortion in Minnesota.

One is tempted to write this off as a sick joke (can anyone be that callous? or that stupid? Maybe Ms. Arnold is not really pregnant, just fat, and these are pictures of someone else’s developing baby?) Some have speculated that the website has been set up simply as a provocation to the pro-life movement (who, understandably, have reacted with horror). But even those who support abortion rights should be sickened by the idea of putting this decision in the public square.

Real or not, one of the most depressing aspects of this story are the “justifications” advanced by the parents as to why they should not have a child. At thirty years old, they fear they are still too immature to be parents (obviously they were too immature to use birth control, but that’s another story).

…Mrs Arnold said she fears the pressure of juggling motherhood and a career could cause her to have a nervous breakdown.

She wrote: ‘I’m not convinced that I want to change the status quo. I feel that as I age I’ve actually gotten more selfish and set in my ways.

‘I’m afraid that I will eventually regret starting a family and “settling down”, as they say.

‘I fear that the constant pressure to be the perfect wife and mother while maintaining a full-time job will eventually cause my brain to implode and lead to a nervous breakdown.’

Their solution to the dilemma was to set up a public vote, which the couple say is in the best traditions of American democracy.

Hmm, somehow I doubt the Founding Fathers contemplated holding votes on the fate of unborn children. But over at Al Quaeda HQ, you can almost hear the jihadis rub their hands with glee, bookmarking this story as yet another sign of the moral cesspool that America has become. Women aborting their children because they interfere with their career plans! And asking the public to help them do it!

Maybe all this couple wants is publicity, though it is hard to imagine why anyone would want to be famous for this, even for fifteen minutes. If they are not a reality-show hoax, they have one thing right: they are definitely too immature to be parents. Frankly, if Wiggles is real, the best thing for him would be to be born and adopted by people who truly want him – and didn’t have to poll strangers to realize it.